"Red Book Stone"

(BLC) - Sin Suoi Ho ASEAN Community Tourism Village (Sin Suoi Ho Commune, Phong Tho District) is not only a tourist attraction with beautiful natural scenery and cool climate, but it also contains a unique cultural identity and many mysteries. Among them, it is necessary to mention many ancient stone slabs with carvings containing mysteries about the way the Mong people divided the fields in the past when settling down in the Northwestern border region. The Mong people here call it "Red Book Stone".

Sin Suoi Ho village is about 30 km from Lai Chau city, attracting many tourists to visit and admire. There are many interesting activities here such as experiencing the sunset on the mountain top; admiring the beauty of terraced fields, heart waterfall, love waterfall, seeing unique welcome gates with traditional houses and strange homestays and bungalows of the Mong ethnic group. Besides learning about the typical culture through the market, enjoying ethnic dishes, visitors can also participate in folk games, watch art performances, learn about brocade weaving, blacksmithing... Sin Suoi Ho is also a place to preserve a 300-year-old ancient wall, a 310-year-old tung qua su tree or ancient stone slabs with special carvings.

Located about 300m from the market, we came to the unique tourist attraction of Sin Suoi Ho village, "Red Book Stone". Mr. Vang A Chinh - Head of Sin Suoi Ho village is enthusiastically introducing to tourists about the unique origin of the ancient stone slabs with many deep carvings on the stone. Local people call them "Red Book Stone". According to Mr. Chinh: Local people know these ancient stone slabs but do not know how long the "Red Book Stone" has existed. "Red Book Stone" has carvings for people to easily remember and is essentially a "field map" of the village. Each carving is equivalent to a terraced field reclaimed by a family and the Mong people in the past used carvings to mark the ownership of each field. On the ancient stone slab, there are winding carvings separating the drainage ditches between the layers of stone, which coincides with the terrain of the village, which also has a stream flowing through the terraced fields.

According to our observations, the ancient stone slabs are located in the middle of a residential area at the end of the village, interspersed with many Mong people's rammed earth houses. On the largest ancient stone slab, there are deep carvings on the stone surface like winding steps, like a miniature map of the overlapping rice fields of the people when they first reclaimed the land for cultivation. The deep, clear, seamless fingerprint carvings on the "Red Book Stone" bear the mark of human hands. This symbolizes the reclaimed terraced fields interspersed with valleys and hillsides embracing the entire village.

Many families divide their fields to their children and grandchildren after marriage as well as leave inheritances. They go to these “Red Book Stones” to indicate the place where the fields are received. Then, the children and grandchildren are led to the actual terraced fields corresponding to the simulation of the “Red Book Stones” to cultivate and produce.

When coming to the ASEAN community tourism village of Sin Suoi Ho, many tourists visit the "Red Book Stone" sightseeing spot with unique and creative features of the local people in dividing the fields.

Over time, over the years, the ancient stone slab has remained present in the lives of many generations of Mong people in Sin Suoi Ho village and has become a valuable heritage. This not only creates a highlight, attracting tourists but also affirms the land where the village was established over many generations as well as evidence of land sovereignty and security.

Some pictures of "Red Book Stone" in Sin Suoi Ho village, Phong Tho district: